Using computers to make art? Of course! My first computer back about 1990 was a 10-year old DOS dinosaur, one of the early portables (at 35 pounds, more like transportable.) I was a total beginner at computers but it had a graphics program on it and I was hooked--irrevocably hooked! I was also very glad when my son gave me another hand-me-down and I could forget DOS!
But let me emphasize--the computer is only a tool just as brush or pen or rulers and fabric are. The computer doesn't make the art--I do! I draw the lines, set the experiments and make the choices. The computer is more accurate and faster than pen and ruler for making patterns--and no ink smears ever. I can do things to photographs with a few clicks that used to take me hours in the darkroom--and then go far beyond that. I can paint pictures--and no little fingers will smear my paint. And I can get effects in minutes that are impossible with brush and canvas. I use a drawing pad and stylus and the strokes on the monitor respond to my touch just as a brush or pastel would. I can play with more variations of an idea than I would ever have time to do otherwise.
But don't mistake me, I still do things traditionally--sometimes. It is just that the computer allows me to explore things I could not have done otherwise--and many more of them. I like that!
I use drawing programs (mostly CorelDraw,) painting programs (mostly Photoshop and Painter) and fractal generating programs (Ultra Fractal and Apophysis and more) I also use several image modifying programs (like PhotoShop and Kaleider.)
Do I use computers to make art? Of course. That is how http://QuiltUniversity.com got started. Carol Miller and I have never met, but we brainstormed via email and we have talked on the phone just twice. We plan to meet in Houston this fall when QU celebrates its 5th anniversary with a special student quilt exhibit. In many ways, I consider my teaching to be the finest art of all!
